Imitating God: Embracing Holiness Over Happiness
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"Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints." [00:02:18]
"Paul moves from the more doctrinal section of the book in the first three chapters to the moral and ethical impact of it all. Although having said that, we've noted almost immediately and consistently that all of his moral imperatives are grounded in what we've become accustomed to referring to as the doctrinal indicatives." [00:03:35]
"God's interest in us is not our happiness, which may be a byproduct, but it is in our holiness. This is not an emphasis unique to Ephesians. For example, when he writes to Titus in chapter 2, encouraging Titus in Crete to be a minister of the gospel, he reminds Titus to remind his people that he, that is Jesus, gave himself for us." [00:07:20]
"Every good earthly father disciplines his children. It's a nonsense to think that ill-disciplined or undisciplined children are a testimony to anybody at all. And so the writer argues from the lesser to the greater and he quotes the Old Testament and he says, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?" [00:08:31]
"God disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. So the disciplinary action of God in our lives, the fashioning of us, we could say quite honestly that just in the same way that there are times when we have had occasion to go up to our bedrooms greatly discouraged and unhappy because of the intervention of our earthly fathers." [00:09:56]
"God does not justify those whom he does not sanctify. Those who were predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. So you can't take one piece of the puzzle and separate it from the unfolding drama of God in salvation." [00:20:08]
"Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. So in the same way that a judge is able to declare the person in the dock free from condemnation." [00:26:08]
"Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are so renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. So the one is, if you like, legal and forensic; the other is moral and ongoing." [00:27:40]
"Paul says, do not let, do not be deceived by vain and empty words. You say, well, we don't have that today, do we? Are you kidding me? Think of all the empty words that are part and parcel of our everyday life. God, they say, people say, if he exists, is far too kind to punish anyone." [00:32:01]
"The wrath of God is not the fiery outburst of a dad who's lost his temper and kicked the cat and driven his car into the wall. No, it's not like that at all. It is the settled response of the entire holiness and character of God to everything that he knows is marring and spoiling and disappointing and just destroying life." [00:38:08]
"Paul, you can just almost hear his heart, can't you? What are you going to do about this in light of the fact that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes the judgment? If you go to funeral services much, and some of you do, it's almost an occupational hazard the older we get." [00:39:55]
"The ground of our salvation is in the work of Jesus Christ for us, not as a result of something done in us, definitely not done by us. But the evidence of the fact that we have been brought into the realm of the justified is in the ongoing of his work in us." [00:41:38]
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"Paul moves from the more doctrinal section of the book in the first three chapters to the moral and ethical impact of it all. Although having said that, we've noted almost immediately and consistently that all of his moral imperatives are grounded in what we've become accustomed to referring to as the doctrinal indicatives." [00:03:35]
"God's interest in us is not our happiness, which may be a byproduct, but it is in our holiness. This is not an emphasis unique to Ephesians. For example, when he writes to Titus in chapter 2, encouraging Titus in Crete to be a minister of the gospel, he reminds Titus to remind his people that he, that is Jesus, gave himself for us." [00:07:20]
"Every good earthly father disciplines his children. It's a nonsense to think that ill-disciplined or undisciplined children are a testimony to anybody at all. And so the writer argues from the lesser to the greater and he quotes the Old Testament and he says, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?" [00:08:31]
"God disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. So the disciplinary action of God in our lives, the fashioning of us, we could say quite honestly that just in the same way that there are times when we have had occasion to go up to our bedrooms greatly discouraged and unhappy because of the intervention of our earthly fathers." [00:09:56]
"God does not justify those whom he does not sanctify. Those who were predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. So you can't take one piece of the puzzle and separate it from the unfolding drama of God in salvation." [00:20:08]
"Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. So in the same way that a judge is able to declare the person in the dock free from condemnation." [00:26:08]
"Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are so renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. So the one is, if you like, legal and forensic; the other is moral and ongoing." [00:27:40]
"Paul says, do not let, do not be deceived by vain and empty words. You say, well, we don't have that today, do we? Are you kidding me? Think of all the empty words that are part and parcel of our everyday life. God, they say, people say, if he exists, is far too kind to punish anyone." [00:32:01]
"The wrath of God is not the fiery outburst of a dad who's lost his temper and kicked the cat and driven his car into the wall. No, it's not like that at all. It is the settled response of the entire holiness and character of God to everything that he knows is marring and spoiling and disappointing and just destroying life." [00:38:08]
"Paul, you can just almost hear his heart, can't you? What are you going to do about this in light of the fact that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes the judgment? If you go to funeral services much, and some of you do, it's almost an occupational hazard the older we get." [00:39:55]
"The ground of our salvation is in the work of Jesus Christ for us, not as a result of something done in us, definitely not done by us. But the evidence of the fact that we have been brought into the realm of the justified is in the ongoing of his work in us." [00:41:38]
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